ea, interchanged
various civilities, and so the thing ended."

These and similar anecdotes of our Dchiahour had carried us far into the
night. The camels, indeed, were already up and browsing their breakfast
on the banks of the lake. We had but brief time before us for repose.
"For my part," said Samdadchiemba, "I will not lie down at all, but look
after the camels. Day will soon break. Meantime I'll make a good fire,
and prepare the _pan-tan_."

It was not long before Samdadchiemba roused us with the intimation that
the sun was up, and the _pan-tan_ ready. We at once rose, and after
eating a cup of _pan-tan_, or, in other words, of oatmeal diluted with
boiling water, we planted our little cross upon a hillock, and proceeded
upon our pilgrimage.

It was past noon when we came to a place where three wells had been dug,
at short distances, the one from the other. Although it was early in the
day, we still thought we had better encamp here. A vast plain, on which
we could discern no sort of habitation, stretched out before us to the
distant horizon; and we might fairly conclude it destitute of water,
since the Tartars had taken the trouble to dig these wells. We therefore
set up our tent. We soon found, however, that we had selected a
detestable encampment. With excessive nastiness of very brackish and
very fetid water was combined extreme scarcity of fuel. We looked about
for argols, but in vain. At last Samdadchiemba, whose eyes were better
than ours, discerned in the distance a sort of enclosure, in which he
concluded that cattle had been folded. He took a camel with him to the
place in the hope of finding plenty of argols there, and he certainly
returned with an ample supply of the article; but unfortunately the
precious manure-fuel was not quite dry; it absolutely refused to burn.
The Dchiahour essayed an experiment. He hollowed out a sort of furnace
in the ground, surmounting it with a turf chimney. The structure was
extremely picturesque, but it laboured under the enormous disadvantage of
being wholly useless. Samdadchiemba arranged and re-arranged his fuel,
and puffed, and puffed, with the full force of his potent lungs. It was
all lost labour. There was smoke enough, and to spare; we were enveloped
in smoke, but not a spark of fire: and the water in the kettle remained
relentlessly passive. It was obvious that to boil our tea or heat
oatmeal was out of the question. Yet we were anxious, at al